Read Online The Explosionist by Jenny Davidson - Free Book Online Page B

to have believed the medium was a fraud, but if Mikael had been there, surely his skepticism would have been shaken. “Of course it’s ludicrous—great danger and a voyage over water and all that. But the way the medium asked for me beforehand so that I’d be sure she didn’t have any tricks up her sleeve—”
    “What was her name again?”
    “Mrs. Tansy: Euphemia Tansy, I think it was.”
    “All right,” Mikael said. He jumped to his feet and pulled Sophie up after him. “We’ve got to look into this. It sounds to me as though someone may have put the wretched woman up to this business, and if that’s so, we should be able to find out who it was and what they wanted.”
    “I’ve got her address,” Sophie said suddenly. She didn’t know why she hadn’t thought of it sooner. Having an ally must be good for the brain. She dug through the bits of paper at the bottom of her satchel until she found the medium’s card, and handed it over to Mikael. Her hand brushed against that funny little metal iron in the process, but it seemed hardly worth mentioning.
    “Excellent,” said Mikael, examining the address on the card. “I’ll go there right now, and you and I can meet on Sunday afternoon at the library so I can tell you what I’ve found out.”
    He must have been able to tell Sophie was frightened, or he would have suggested she come with him. Though she supposed it was what she’d hoped for, she wasn’t sure how she felt about Mikael taking charge like this. What if Sophie lost all her self-reliance?
    “You’ll be careful, won’t you?” she said.
    Mikael shrugged away her concern. “I’ll be fine,” he said in an untroubled way. “It’s good practice in case I turn out to be a detective when I’m older.”
    “Do you want to be a detective?” Sophie asked. In December, it had been a fighter pilot, and the summer before, an engineer in the oil fields of Baku.
    Mikael blushed and didn’t say anything, which made Sophie think he might really mean it this time. How interesting!And how convenient for Sophie!
    She told Mikael as much more as she could remember about the medium and what she had said, then noticed it was almost six o’clock. Peggy would be frantic.
    “Oh dear, I must go,” she said, brushing off her skirt and settling the satchel back over her shoulders.
    “I’ll see you on Sunday,” said Mikael.
    They made their way down from the tower, then parted, Sophie hurrying downhill to the closest tram stop. If Mikael could find out more about the medium, she would be greatly in his debt.
    As soon as she got home, Sophie remembered that Great-aunt Tabitha was out for supper, a regular engagement at the Women’s Spiritualism Club, and in the kitchen she found a note from Peggy saying she wouldn’t be back from the dentist until seven. A few months earlier Peggy’s metal fillings had begun picking up spirit voices, and when a long-dead servant from the Stevenson house down the road settled in and began to comment rudely on Peggy’s cooking, Peggy had hauled her life’s savings out from her mattress and gone to have all the old fillings replaced with the new plastic emulsion ones, which couldn’t act as receivers.
    In other words, Sophie might have stayed out as long as she liked. She couldn’t decide whether to be relieved or offended by this evidence of her own insignificance.

EIGHT
    A FTER LUNCH ON S ATURDAY Peggy sent Sophie out with instructions to get a bit of sun and fresh air and not show her face at home a minute before teatime. As Sophie was about to let herself out the front door, Peggy appeared in the hall, marched over, and motioned for Sophie to hand over her satchel. She opened it up and took out the detective novel tucked into the front pocket.
    “Reading’s all very well in its place,” she said, holding the book beyond Sophie’s reach, “but it’s out and about I want you this afternoon, not sitting somewhere cramming your head full of rubbish. I’ll keep